New signing Oliver Dovin is poised to make his non-competitive debut for Coventry City against SV Darmstadt this weekend, with fans eager to see if the 22-year-old Swede will become Mark Robins’ first-choice goalkeeper for the upcoming Championship season.
Dovin is expected to take the vacant No.1 shirt left by Simon Moore, adding immediate competition for Brad Collins and Ben Wilson, who retain their shirt numbers 40 and 13, respectively. This raises the question of whether the manager will keep three senior goalkeepers this season or look to move one on. Moore was surplus to requirements last term but chose to see out his three-year contract rather than find another club.
When asked if Dovin has been signed as the new number one keeper, Robins responded, “Good question!” When pressed for an answer, he added, “Not yet.” Speaking about the quality of the £1.6m signing from Hammarby, the manager said, “He’s hopefully a good goalkeeper. He has a lot of good attributes; catches it, kicks it, throws it… He’s a talented boy, so I am hoping…
“He’s only 22 years of age and is someone we’re all excited about. He’s a good age for us and what we do, and I think that’s another one that the recruitment department have brought in, supported by Doug (King), so exciting times.”
Dovin, who has two senior caps for Sweden, traveled with the squad to Stevenage on Tuesday night but was a spectator, having only trained once and carrying a slight injury from his previous club.
“He’s got a bit of an impingement to his shoulder but he had a medical and passed that, so there’s nothing too bad,” Robins said reassuringly.
“He’s only been here a day or so and only part-trained, so we’re just being careful with him. He should be training on Thursday.” Regarding his potential participation in the game in Germany on Saturday at 12:30 pm, Robins said, “He could do, yes, as long as he’s OK. Hopefully, they will all be fit, and we’ll have a full complement again because we need everybody fit. Too many people have missed too much training.”
As for the possibility of keeping three senior goalkeepers this season, Robins said, “Yes. We have not brought him in with the idea of moving somebody on. Umm, but everything is possible.
“We have young Belly (Luke Bell), who is a really good goalkeeper, so he’s coming along well. So there’s four there, and obviously Cian Tyler as well, although he’s had his wrist injury for a while, so that makes five. And then there’s Dan Rachel in the Academy who has been training with us from time to time, so there is a decent pool of goalkeepers there.”